Gangs gather intel

July 13, 2009

Rafe Arnott/TIMES

According to police, criminal gangs are employing the same intelligence-gathering techniques that authorities do, and that was verified at the recent funeral for Jaswant (Billy) Rai in Abbotsford.

Rai was a local businessman known to police for many years because of his own criminal activity, as well as his suspected involvement in criminal gang activity with the notorious Red Scorpions.

As members of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, Abbotsford police and Municipal Integrated Emergency Response Team (MIERT) members videotaped dozens of people with suspected gang ties attending Rai’s funeral Monday, some of the people they were keeping digital tabs on were doing the same thing to one another.

According to officers on scene, suspected gang members video taped what cars were being driven by who and jotted down license plate numbers.

The fact that gang members are employing a number of counter-intelligence techniques shows how seriously they have stepped up their game in an attempt to minimize the damage inflicted on both their numbers and their business by police in British Columbia.

Const. Ian MacDonald with the APD said that gang members keeping tabs on gang members should not be taken lightly. “I guess if we were completely naïve, we would just say its people attending a gathering and wanting to record it… its some form of counter-intelligence… it’s nothing new, it’s always existed.”

According to MacDonald, it makes perfect sense – whether you are part of a government agency or an organized crime syndicate – to take advantage of electronics breakthroughs.

“I would suggest strongly that social-networking sites like Facebook get harvested quite regularly for information. Anything from cell phones to e-mail communications are subject to people’s scrutiny and certainly their comings and goings in the community is going to be subject to the same thing.”

MacDonald thinks it would be safe to say criminals are parroting police tactics because they have proved effective in disrupting gang activity. “I think it would be naïve to believe that we have some tools that are exclusive to us, that no persons in the criminal element wouldn’t have access to.